Growing Aurora Public Schools considers putting mill levy and bond issue before Colorado voters
On Tuesday night the board of Aurora Public Schools will vote on whether to go to voters in November to ask for money to fund operations, build new schools and upgrade older ones.
The board is considering asking for millions of dollars to deal with its rapidly growing population, as APS is a growing school district and already serves more than 38,000 students. The proposal would ask voters to approve a capital mill levy so that $30 million would be available for the public school district, and issuing a $1 billion bond for school construction.
During Tuesday night's school board meeting, the board will consider whether a capital mill levy and bond issue will be put on the November ballot to raise money for operations and school construction.
The capital mill levy would help fund maintenance, freeing up general fund dollars to go toward staff salaries and support more youth mental health programs and skilled trade programs. The bond for $1 billion is to build a new high school and two preschool through 8th grade schools, as well upgrading a number of older schools.
"We're going to need a new high school, we'll probably need two additional P-8s in the northeast area and then we have several of our schools that have been in our district for some time that need renovation, need expansion so that we can better meet the needs of our students," said Superintendent Michael Giles.
Giles said the package he's hoping to put before voters includes funding to attract and retain teachers. He said that the new investments are also needed to upgrade buildings for career pathways such as health care.
"We're thinking about a potential P through tech high school with a health pathway on the north part of our district that partners right along with Anschutz, UCHealth and that corridor. So, there are a lot of great opportunities that we want to provide our students, but it's going to require that we build facilities, we expand upon facilities," said Giles.